FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL:

1. When the Patriots host the Jaguars in Sunday's AFC Championship Game, Bill Belichick's team will be going up against a regime he played a small part in constructing. It traces back to Belichick's willingness to help a newcomer to the NFL who sought him out with an interest in learning more about the game that is such a big part of Belichick's life.

Here's the backstory:

When Shad Khan purchased the Jaguars in 2011, his son Tony, a senior vice president of football administration and technology, reached out to Belichick. His thought: who better to talk to about players, coaches, and their tendencies?

Belichick was gracious with his time -- as he often is with those whom he sees have a passion for the game he loves -- and the two still communicate, with the 35-year-old Khan viewing Belichick as one of his primary mentors along with Tom Coughlin.

With that connection well established in January 2015, shortly after Doug Marrone had exercised an opt-out clause in his contract as Bills head coach, Belichick played the role of matchmaker by connecting Khan with Marrone. The Jaguars then hired Marrone as assistant head coach/offensive line coach a few weeks later.

While Marrone might have landed in Jacksonville regardless (he shared the same agent as then-head coach Gus Bradley), Belichick's complimentary words to Khan didn't hurt.

Belichick's respect for Marrone traced back, in part, to competing against him early in his Patriots tenure, when Marrone was offensive line coach for the Jets (2002-05). Marrone then moved on to the Saints as offensive coordinator (2006-08) under another close Belichick friend, Sean Payton, before spending four years as head coach at Syracuse, where the Patriots got a good feel for his program after selecting Chandler Jones in the first round of the 2012 draft.

So when the Jaguars were exploring possibilities for their head coaching vacancy in January 2017, Khan once again leaned on Belichick for advice, even as Belichick was busy preparing for the playoffs and an eventual Super Bowl championship. Belichick, whose graciousness with his time during such an important stretch for the Patriots stood out to Khan, relayed that Marrone would be an excellent choice.

While it would be overstating it to say Belichick's recommendation closed the deal for the Jaguars to promote Marrone (owner Shad Khan, Tony's father, went through a detailed process as part of the search), it was a notable piece to the puzzle.

Now, to advance to Super Bowl LII, Belichick and the Patriots need to beat Marrone and the Jaguars, the coach he recommended twice in Jacksonville.

1b. Belichick deflected questions throughout the week on the impact that Coughlin has had in his 2017 return to the Jaguars as executive vice president of football operations. One thought as to why: He doesn't want it to be perceived as taking any credit away from Marrone. The first thing Belichick said to reporters about the Jaguars upon learning they would be the Patriots' opponent: "Obviously, they're well-coached."

1c. Tony Khan has leaned on advice from Belichick and now sits next to Coughlin on game day while learning from him on a daily basis. He has told those close to him how fortunate he feels about such mentorship, and how both are different than the news-conference personas they portray.

2. Sunday marks the 24th anniversary of Robert Kraft taking ownership of the Patriots, and honorary captain Drew Bledsoe -- the No. 1 overall pick in the 1993 draft -- remembers the day well. Bledsoe said that was the catalyst to the franchise becoming the best in professional sports. "When you look at what Robert Kraft has done with that organization, there isn't one single thing you can point to that he does different than anything else. It's everything," Bledsoe said. "He's trying to be better at every single thing they do -- from player personnel, to diet, to training players, to being financially sound. It sets him apart as an owner in all of professional sports."

3. Bledsoe can speak from first-hand experience what it's like to play through an injury to a right-handed quarterback's right hand, as he famously gutted through having a pin in his broken index finger on his right throwing hand late in the 1998 season. That isn't the same injury Tom Brady is currently managing, but when we spoke Friday, Bledsoe mentioned something that still applies to Brady: "One thing I learned with that deal was that if your mechanics are sound, then you don't really have to feel your hand. And Tommy is so mechanically sound, that as long as he can get a grip on the ball, he should be fine."

4. From the consider-every-contingency-plan category: If the Patriots had to go to an emergency third quarterback, who would it be? Receiver Chris Hogan got a good laugh last week when I asked him if he would be up for the task. He extended his left arm in front of him, tapped his wrist like a baseball manager calling for a lefty out of the bullpen, and said he hasn't played the position since he was 7. With Julian Edelman on injured reserve, Hogan would probably be the choice.

5. As nice as Patriots receiver Brandin Cooks' gesture was last week to give away two tickets to the divisional-round victory over the Titans to a single mother -- an acknowledgment of how much he appreciated his own mother's sacrifice from being in that situation -- I thought the aftermath of it said as much about Cooks as anything. He declined all interview requests on the topic, saying he didn't do it for publicity.

6. Did You Know (via ESPN's Stats & Information): If the Patriots beat the Jaguars to advance to the Super Bowl, they will become just the fifth team in each of the major four professional sports to advance to their respective championship 10 times (since 1966). The others are the Los Angeles Lakers (22), Montreal Canadiens (13), Boston Celtics (12) and New York Yankees (11).

7. If the Patriots beat the Jaguars in the AFC title game, it opens a second "window" for teams to talk to coordinators Matt Patricia and Josh McDaniels, and linebackers coach Brian Flores, about head coaching opportunities. Patricia is expected to land with the Lions, according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter, while this week -- win or lose -- should provide more clarity on where things truly stand with McDaniels and Flores with the Colts and Cardinals, respectively.

8. The Titans' decision Saturday to hire Mike Vrabel as head coach sparked thoughts of something Belichick reflected on a few years back. When Vrabel played for Belichick in 2001-08, Belichick said the idea of Vrabel going into coaching was obvious. "Mike and I talked about that a lot," Belichick said in 2015. "He'd give me advice and I'd say, 'Mike, when you're a coach, you should go ahead and do that. Here's why we're not going to do that.' Or [it was,] 'That's a great idea. We can do that. I'm glad you brought that up.' Mike's not afraid to make a suggestion. ... Mike's got a great mind for it, a great passion for it." Vrabel's Titans will host the Patriots next season.

9. With running back Rex Burkhead expected to be back in action for the AFC Championship Game, according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter, the Patriots will probably have only one player (OT LaAdrian Waddle) who isn't active because of an injury. That means there will be a few unconventional players who don't make it on the 46-man game-day roster, and one of them could be rookie tight end Jacob Hollister. Since he was inactive in the season opener, Hollister has played in every game since, carving out a core role on special teams and as a seldom-used No. 3 tight end (four catches, 42 yards). If Hollister is indeed inactive, the Patriots will have to fill his spot on the kickoff-return, punt-protection, punt-return and kickoff-coverage units, which is the type of 1-for-4 exchange that challenges resourceful special teams coach Joe Judge and his assistant Ray Ventrone.

10. With the Patriots and Jaguars meeting for the AFC championship, some Patriots players said they reviewed film from August joint practices to re-familiarize themselves with some Jacksonville players (e.g., offensive linemen focused on pass-rush moves). That added a unique dynamic to game-plan preparations and also served up a reminder of one of the fun exchanges at one of those practices. When the third-string Patriots offense was capping off practice against the Jaguars' third-unit defense, Belichick said the final rep would decide which team had to do pushups. The Jaguars got the stop, and everyone on the New England side hit the deck, including Belichick. "He hopped down there and did those pushups," Jaguars defensive lineman Calais Campbell said that day. "Very impressed. I thought that was pretty cool that he got down and paid his debt with his team." Pushups in August for a third-string rep, and now the Lamar Hunt Trophy on the line Sunday: Few could have seen this coming.